Artwork Information

Roman consul, general and military reformer Caius (Gaius) was imprisoned at Minturnae in 88 BC by a rival Roman general, Sulla. Here a Cimbrian soldier sent to murder him retreats in terror when Caius cries out, ‘Who dares kill Marius?’ While Caius first appeared in a text by Plutarch in 75 AD, Fuseli may equally have been inspired by Thomas Otway’s play, The History and Fall of Caius Marius (1679). The narrative was also performed as an opera around 1760, the set for which is still extant in Turin and which Fuseli may have seen.